ANC Youth League continues marching to Pretoria

At dusk on Thursday, thousands of marchers in Sandton contemplated whether to continue their economic march to freedom to Pretoria on foot.

After handing a memorandum of grievances to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, marchers briefly rested, before a large crowd continued walking. They had about 60km ahead of them.

Other participants boarded buses, while many people dispersed.
The crowd had begun gathering from 5am in Beyers Naude Square in the Johannesburg CBD. They only began walking at noon, four hours later than planned due to transport problems.

Led by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, police cars, four Casspirs and a water cannon, the group sang and danced through the CBD.

Their first stop was the Chamber of Mines in the Johannesburg CBD where they handed a memorandum to chamber CEO Bheki Sibiya. Sibiya told reporters the chamber would apply its mind to the content of the document.

“We understand that the level of unemployment is too high and we agree with the youth league that the level of poverty is too high,” he said.

“We will distribute it [memorandum] to our 55 members.”

The league wanted the nationalisation of mines and the introduction of probation programmes within companies to give youth skills in mining.

The memorandum calls for better wages for mine workers and the active involvement of mining companies in the development of the industry.

After spending 20 minutes at the chamber’s offices, the marchers headed to the JSE, about 18km away.